How To Get Commuters On Buses? Make Them Less Bus-Like

Kansas City’s MAX buses have more legroom than the city’s regular buses.

City buses that carry people to and from work each day are attempting an identity change: They want to be trains.

To woo workday commuters, Cleveland and select cities across the U.S. are trying to replace the image of the gritty, pokey, crowded bus by sending sleeker, more spacious and trainlike buses onto certain commuter routes. They are packing these buses with amenities cribbed from the handbook of other cities’ commuter rail and light-rail trains.

In part, they hope to attract passengers who don’t have to ride the bus to work—people who can afford to own a car and pay for gas and parking, but who will willingly hop a bus. Getting more of these “choice riders,” as the public transportation industry calls them, can help fund local transportation and reduce traffic.

The tricked-out buses promise to cut commute times by up to half from regular bus service by featuring routes with minimal stops and, in some cases, bus-only lanes to keep the vehicles from getting stuck in traffic. To further differentiate these buses from their regular brethren, many transit districts have added perks like Wi-Fi and off-bus ticketing for speedy boarding.

Cities even avoid calling the services “buses.” Seattle calls its fleet “RapidRide.” Kansas City’s buses are emblazoned with “MAX” for “Metro Area Express.” Cleveland goes by the shortened “BRT” for bus rapid transit. “It’s not a bus, it’s a rapid-transit vehicle,” says Joseph Calabrese, chief executive and general manager of Cleveland’s transportation district.

The National Bus Rapid Transit Institute at the University of South Florida estimates that 30 U.S. cities have adopted some form of the fast-bus service, including the Seattle area, which unveiled its first two rapid-transit lines in 2010 and 2011. The concept of rapid-transit bus service originated in crowded cities such as Bogota, Colombia, and Curitiba, Brazil, where bus systems carry millions of riders annually.